Beta Technologies founder smoothly lands biplane in distress along I-89 in Richmond

August 21, 2021  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

As it turned out, first responders were not needed at the of the Antonov AN2 biplane emergency landing between I-89 ant U.S. Route 2 on Sunday. Photo courtesy Richmond Rescue.

Travelers along Interstate 89 last weekend likely did a double-take as a single-engine biplane experiencing engine trouble made a smooth emergency landing, touching down undamaged in a field, its pilot and passenger unhurt.

The incident happened around 3:15 Sunday afternoon, Vermont State Police said, in the Richmond Flats area where a field between U.S. Route 2 and I-89 offered a safe, flat, open space for the pilot to land. 

“The aircraft made a safe, controlled landing with no injuries,” Troopers Justin Wagner and Adam Marchand said in their report on the incident.  

At the controls was pilot Kyle Clark of Underhill, the founder of aerospace company Beta Technologies based at Burlington International Airport. Clark had one passenger, pilot George Coy of Swanton, an owner of Border Air, the aviation service company that operates the Franklin County Airport.

Clark is a test pilot and engineer and the start-up Beta Technologies has been in the headlines over the past couple of years for the progress it’s making in developing electric-powered airplanes built to take off and land vertically. 

A spokesman for Beta Technologies on Monday said the biplane was not owned by Beta but instead is privately owned and Clark was flying it. A check with Federal Aviation Administration records shows that the airplane, a 1969 Antonov AN2 manufactured in Poland, is registered to Thomas Hedekin of Alton Bay, N.H. On its side are painted the words “Lietuvos Avialinijos” which translates to “Lithuanian Airlines.” The model was originally designed and built in the Soviet Union post World War II and is known for agricultural uses. The Beta spokesman said Clark is in the process of acquiring the aircraft. 

On Monday, an aviation website called FSX Aviation based in New Zealand posted on YouTube a recording of the final five minutes of the flight along with a video created using Microsoft flight simulator software. 

On the audio recording, the pilot is heard talking with air-traffic control which suggests a runway at Burlington International Airport as a spot to land. Replying “sounds like we’ve lost a cylinder,” the pilot turns down the offer. “Looks like we’re not going to make the airport,” he says. “We’re going to the field in from of the VYCC … barn,” he continues, noting the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps monitor barn in the vicinity. “We’ll be in the field adjacent to the interstate it looks like.”

The spot is precisely where it touched down. 

Emergency crews quickly made their way to the scene. In addition to state police, Richmond Police along with responders from Richmond and Bolton Fire Departments and the Vermont Air National Guard Fire Department responded, state police said. 

It’s customary for the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate aviation incidents and crashes. Given that this was an emergency landing without incident, a spokesman for the FAA said the FAA would conduct what would likely be a brief review of what happened. 

This is the second aviation incident in Vermont recently with a connection to Beta Technologies. On July 30, a Beta Technologies helicopter crashed on the Colchester Causeway bike path. The helicopter, which was not built by Beta, was destroyed but its pilot was not seriously hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating that crash.